1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention is a method and apparatus to stimulate production of oil and gas from producing wells by periodically dispensing a stimulant downhole into the well.
2. The Prior Art
In the production of oil and gas in some fields, there is a tendency for the wells to "load/up" meaning that a fluid, such as water, settles on top of the gases that cause the hydrocarbon fluids to rise to the wellhead. This problem can sometimes be solved by dropping into the well an appropriate stimulant which will cause agitation of the fluid and allow the gas and oil to rise to the wellhead. There are many known stimulants, which will effect the desired stimulation by agitating the overlying fluid to allow the gas and oil to rise therethrough. Examples of these are the Wilscote Flo-Sticks.TM. produced by Wilson Industries of Houston, Tex. and which contain an unloader/foamer alone or in combination with condensate handling materials acid treatment descaler and corrosion inhibitor. Another example is the amine salt, more commonly referred to as a brine foamer, produced by Anderson Price Industries of Victoria, Tex. under the tradename Gulf Coast Sticks. Yet another example is the surfactant compound/amine salt stick produced by Fisher-Stevens Inc. of Victoria, Tex.
Previously the injection of a stimulant into a well was accomplished by an individual visiting the well site and physically dropping the stimulant downhole. While this manual method is effective, it does have the major drawback of limiting or inhibiting production in that there might be a considerable time lapse between the time when the well "loads up" and the next scheduled visit of the Lease Operator to that well. This also would apply to situations, for example, in offshore or other extremely difficult locations to visit which visits might be hampered due to certain localized weather conditions, such as storms offshore or flooding inland.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic well stimulating method and apparatus which will periodically cause a stimulant to be dropped downhole to agitate fluid loading up the well and allow the recovery of gas and oil from that well. The subject invention could also be used in conjunction with condition response actuation and/or with remote control actuation after flow measurement.